Great Books: 1984 by George Orwell

Time for the last of this year's student picks. We read Anthem, we read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, now, lets read 1984 by George Orwell.

Written in 1948, 1984 is a vision of a totalitarian future, ruled by Big Brother, in which everything is strictly controlled, from history to individual thought. The novel was written in response to post-WWII politics, specifically communist and fascist governments.  Since this is our second dystopian novel, I expect you to have a strong working knowledge of the characteristics of dystopian literature.

Unit Vocabulary

• Thought Police – The Secret Police, correcting anti-party thought.
• Thought Crime – Thinking anti-party, anti-government thoughts
• Newspeak – The language of Oceania
• Groupthink – Thinking as a group to discourage creativity and individual responsibility.
• Doublethink – the ability to believe two contradictory things at a time.
• Ingoc – The Government of Oceania
• Inner Party/Outer Party – Those that are closest to Big Brother and those that are on the outside.
• Proles – Lower classes, segregated from the rest of the city. From the term proletariat.

Main Characters:
A two paragraph character analysis of these characters is due at the end of the unit.

• Winston Smith
• Julia
• O’Brian
• Mr. Charrington
• Big Brother

Great Books: Literary Elements in Kingdom Come

With Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross finally under our belts, it's time to prove what you learned about literary elements and devices used in the novel. 

Essay requirements:

• 5 paragraph minimum
• Must include a three part thesis statement. 
• Example1: "I believe Kingdom Come is a powerful novel because of the author's use of symbolism, foreshadowing, and dialogue."
• Example2: The author uses symbolism to create religious significance, emotional investment, and character depth. 
• Must discuss 1-3 literary techniques used in the novel. (Note above examples.) 
• Must re-state the thesis statement in the conclusion. 

Possible literary elements to choose from: 

• Onomatopoeia
• Narration
• Symbolism
• Point of View
• Genre
• Allegory
• Irony
• Theme
• Flashback
• Allusion 

After finishing your hand written rough draft you must get approval from me before moving on to your typed final draft. Make sure you spend time proofreading your final draft before turning it in. Read your essay out loud to help catch obvious mistakes.